Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Other than doing a body swap .. what can be done to put a hard top Zuk on a diet .. I would really like to keep the hardtop (so I have some chance of my wife going 4 wheeling with me)

I am thinking of loosing the back door completely and makeing up an aluminum tailgate, alloy wheels, getting rid of as much glass as possible and makeing up some alloy bumpers (to keep it looking normal ... ) and half doors ...

Gut the interiour of carpet and any extra "stuff" thats not strictly needed .. UHF as well as tape deck are needed .. ditch dual batteries in favor of one oddessy battery .. and get rid of 90% of the junk I tend to carry ..

Any other ideas ??

Are you willing to cut the tub?

If so you could remove a lot of the floor and inner guards (front and back) and replace them with something lighter (perhaps aluminum?)...

Get rid of the spare tyre.

Reduce the amount of rubbish you carry around with you.

Leave your brother dan at home.

Note: i was surprised how much lighter my car was once the soft top body went on... The springs went up an inch - so it must have been a fair bit lighter... Otherwise, i think once you remove all the glass, you'll find the weight has been reduced a fair bit.

put a softtop sun roof in ie cut a huge hole in the roof and then use either a clear or vinyl button in top.

Losing the glass will make a huge difference.

Replace the rear tailgate with a canvas roll up one.

RCI seats

26" tyres

no spare

fill tyres with helium

grimbo wrote:put a softtop sun roof in ie cut a huge hole in the roof and then use either a clear or vinyl button in top.

Losing the glass will make a huge difference.

Replace the rear tailgate with a canvas roll up one.

RCI seats

26" tyres

no spare

fill tyres with helium

The diet is actually to able tu run bigger rubber .. So 26's it is ..

As afr as the vinyl top goes .. do you mean like those "fun top" things I saw on some little daihatsu's ( I think they were daihatsu .. possibly Mazda) .. ?

love_mud wrote:As afr as the vinyl top goes .. do you mean like those "fun top" things I saw on some little daihatsu's ( I think they were daihatsu .. possibly Mazda) .. ?

Big Steve has a photo of a hardtop sierra that has had the roof cut out of it - still looks like a hard top from the side...

It still sounds like a lot of these activities are going to be more expensive and end up with less of a result than just putting a soft top body on it though...

Soft top body + fibreglass canopy - perhaps that would be the answer to allow you to keep the mrs happy and still have a super light car?

yeah like the Mazda 121 City fun tops. Fairly easy to make I'd imagine as long as 100% waterproof isn't an issue. Basically cut a hole that doesn't jeopardise the structural integrity. Seal the edges. Make some runners similar to how a softop slides in and then make a canvas top with the ropes thru that will slide along the runners. Probably need some sort of rubber flaps at the ends to cover the canvas

How about swapping the hardtop body for a ute body guy? then you get a hardtop, but without half the body panels to worry about

this would be easy to do, and I happy to lend a hand, it keeps hard top over cab area. no need for body swaps etc. christover

greg wrote:How about swapping the hardtop body for a ute body guy? then you get a hardtop, but without half the body panels to worry about

Because I like making things far more difficult than they need to be ...

And once I get done the wheels will protect the bodywork quite well anything else that gets smashed ... well I will deal with that if and when it happens ... thats if I ever get it moving again ..

the other side to this is that not enough weight and you'll find that the suspension will work differently too. i found with mine that the rear suspension worked better once we added a bit more weight with the tray and the shifting of weight with the spare wheel rather than before with the flat bed. I do notice added travel and traction with more weight over the rear tyres

christover1 wrote:this would be easy to do, and I happy to lend a hand, it keeps hard top over cab area. no need for body swaps etc. christover

would make it alot easier to make up a cage .. and angle grinders to fascinate me

Well their is a lot of things you can do to lose weight. What the rally guys do to the escorts as an example
1. Bonnet/boot to fibreglass items.
2. Fibre glass doors or strip the inside of the door out and cover with ally.
3. Drill holes in anything that can be drilled eg: pedals and pedal arms. I've seen disc brakes that have holes the size of a 20c peice drilled out of them.
4. Sound deadner/tar crap, lose that, in an escort it weighs around 11kg all up

But like grimbo said, is it a good thing to lose that weight?
You should be trying to lose the unsprung wieght like shaving the diff, ally calipers, 185/55/13 tires

DeWsE wrote:Well their is a lot of things you can do to lose weight. What the rally guys do to the escorts as an example
1. Bonnet/boot to fibreglass items.
2. Fibre glass doors or strip the inside of the door out and cover with ally.
3. Drill holes in anything that can be drilled eg: pedals and pedal arms. I've seen disc brakes that have holes the size of a 20c peice drilled out of them.
4. Sound deadner/tar crap, lose that, in an escort it weighs around 11kg all up

But like grimbo said, is it a good thing to lose that weight?
You should be trying to lose the unsprung wieght like shaving the diff, ally calipers, 185/55/13 tires

Thats part of the problem .. I will be increasing the unsprung weight, in turn that weight comes of the GVM of the vehicle .. plus I will never know if its good until I take it out, It would ntop be all that hard to add weight back into the vehcile heavy bumpers, heavy rims, go a bit silly with bar work etc .. remeber you can only leaglly make a Zuk 250 Kg ( I think that its 250Kg maybe the 413 is 400Kg.. who can remeber these details) if it is to pass an engineers report) IE the tyre and rim combo I am curently running weigh 40Kg a piece .. thats 160 Kg so say 100Kg more than the factory wheel and tyre package, add in recovery gear , bullbar etc .. as well as fuel and driver .. does not take very much ..

MQ diffs?

N*A*M wrote:MQ diffs?

Quite likley .. I am sick to death of adusting wheelbearings and less than adaquate brakes I will trade off the ground clearance for durability & stability along with being able stop in a hurry in traffic is a good idea as well ..

The whole engineering aspect of it appeals to me greatly to ...

awesome!

don't chop the tin top!!

do it like this. i love this rig!

some more pics here:

http://www.offroadconversions.com/2002_neurocx.html

N*A*M wrote:awesome!

don't chop the tin top!!

Why not ?? .. It could be cool .. I have already hacked the guards . why not the rest

greg wrote:

love_mud wrote:As afr as the vinyl top goes .. do you mean like those "fun top" things I saw on some little daihatsu's ( I think they were daihatsu .. possibly Mazda) .. ?

Big Steve has a photo of a hardtop sierra that has had the roof cut out of it - still looks like a hard top from the side...

It still sounds like a lot of these activities are going to be more expensive and end up with less of a result than just putting a soft top body on it though...

Soft top body + fibreglass canopy - perhaps that would be the answer to allow you to keep the mrs happy and still have a super light car?

Somebody say my name ??

bigsteve wrote:Somebody say my name ??

Thats fawkin cool ...

love_mud wrote:

bigsteve wrote:Somebody say my name ??

Thats fawkin cool ...

When Greg and I were looking at it I recall saying "This is what Guy should do"

N*A*M wrote:some more pics here:

http://www.offroadconversions.com/2002_neurocx.html

ahh yes the kemerer boys. jason aslo has a 4 door Sidekick with Toyota axles front and rear and 35" tyres very sweet familt rig.

grimbo wrote:

N*A*M wrote:some more pics here:

http://www.offroadconversions.com/2002_neurocx.html

ahh yes the kemerer boys. jason aslo has a 4 door Sidekick with Toyota axles front and rear and 35" tyres very sweet familt rig.

"Familt"

Interesting

bigsteve wrote:

love_mud wrote:

bigsteve wrote:Somebody say my name ??

Thats fawkin cool ...

When Greg and I were looking at it I recall saying "This is what Guy should do"

I think we were also looking at a few shots of very badly built / engineered cars and saying "This is what Guy should fix on his car"

N*A*M wrote:do it like this. i love this rig!

We know a fellow that is part way through doing this sort of guard chopping on the back of his soft top... the rear axel is going to be shifted back a bit so that the rear most point of the tyre lines up with the very back of the tailgate / car body... i gather that would mean about 6" or so of extended wheelbase at the back..

should be cool...

greg wrote:

bigsteve wrote:

love_mud wrote:

bigsteve wrote:Somebody say my name ??

Thats fawkin cool ...

When Greg and I were looking at it I recall saying "This is what Guy should do"

I think we were also looking at a few shots of very badly built / engineered cars and saying "This is what Guy should fix on his car"

I resemble that .. mines not that badly built (except the parts that I have touched ).. just poorly maintained .. It did 4 years as a daily driver ..

greg wrote:

N*A*M wrote:do it like this. i love this rig!

We know a fellow that is part way through doing this sort of guard chopping on the back of his soft top... the rear axel is going to be shifted back a bit so that the rear most point of the tyre lines up with the very back of the tailgate / car body... i gather that would mean about 6" or so of extended wheelbase at the back..

should be cool...

the white shorty? i've seen pics

N*A*M wrote:
the white shorty? i've seen pics

the very same... should be good